Holiday Gifting and Group Daycare Providers

I use a group daycare facility in NYC for my infant son. I am wondering what is appropriate/expected in terms of gifts (who and what/how much). Do you just give gifts to the teachers, or do you also give gifts to the director and assistant director? What type of gift is appropriate (e.g., cash, gift certificate, things)? Do you gift the head teacher differently from the assistant teacher(s)?

Finally, does it make a difference that our first day using this daycare center was December 3 - so the holidays are coming less than a month after we started there.

I agree with PP. A gift basket or a platter (I like to get a platter of yummy breads, like banana nut bread, pumpkin bread, etc.).

After you've been there longer, a gift is appropriate. Most people seem to give gifts to the main teacher & assistants, but either nothing for floaters or something like a platter or cookies for the whole center. I have never gotten a gift for the director in 5+ years... I probably should at this point! But I'm very curious about what other parents are doing for directors.

I give gift cards with maybe a little chachke and a thoughtful card of pictures of my kid(s). This year it was $30 each for both the head teacher and assistant; I'd love it to be more. I usually give about the same to both since my gift is pretty small. :) Oh, and usually I DON'T do individual holiday gifts; I give them as a thank-you when my kids change rooms. For the holidays I'll do some food for everyone.

I too do a food gift for the whole center (last year it was donuts for their morning break) and just small gifts for whomever is in his room (usually a lead teacher and an assistant.) And I mean small. Our budget is really tight. I think last year I got them each a $15 Starbucks giftcard and tucked it in a dollar store Christmas mug with some Hershey Kisses and stuff like that. I wish we could do more, but we can't.

I'm giving each of my sons daycare classes a $40 gift card. That way the teachers and main floaters for that room can decide to spend it on stuff for them or supplies for the classroom that they'd normally spend out of pocket. My sons started in October